OVERVIEW
 
Another year for madden. Based on the 2015-16 season. The cover athlete is the guy with the crazy colored hair, Odell Beckham Jr. Technically, the Madden Curse has gotten him since he did get suspended during the season for his personal foul plays against the Panthers. Now that Madden 17 is on its way. The cover athlete will be one of the greatest Tight Ends of all-time, Rob Gronkownski aka The Gronk and he will be bringing his infamous Gronk Spike with him. As for the game itself, as usual it adds and subtracts features from the previous game in the series and all the hard-hitting are still there. Without further ado, on to the review.
 
GRAPHICS - A+
 
Ah, those old days from the original Playstation 1 and 2, Xbox, Nintendo 64, and Gamecube where all the characters obviously looked like cardboard cutout polygons. Along came the Playstation 3 and 4 and the Xbox 360 and Xbox One. From then on, all characters actually began to look absolutely realistic and sport a spot on resemblance to the player or coach that they are supposed to represent. The notable exceptions are Bill Bellichick and Sean Payton whom both declined to be represented in Madden games for the more foreseeable future. They are replaced by generic coaches dubbed N.E. Coach (Bellichick) and N.O. Coach (Payton) although Payton's replacement does look almost just like him. Ironically, both of them had coached teams involved in "gate" scandals. Poor little Tom Brady will finally pay for his crimes more than a season after he committed them as he has to sit out the first four games of this upcoming season.
 
Moving on, also on the subject of spot on appearances of the people, the game does a very excellent job capturing every player and coach's unique features all the way down to the skin tone, facial hair, and if a player is know to have braids protruding out from his helmet then that is incorporated into the game as well. Most notable features besides the aforementioned braids from guys like Larry Fitzgerald are Jeff Fisher's (Rams Coach) mustache, Bill O'Brien's (Texans Coach) cleft chin, Bruce Arian's (Cardinals Coach) looking like an albino gorilla, Andy Dalton (Bengals QB) and Odell Beckham Jr.'s (Giants WR) hairstyles when their helmets are off, and the one that takes the cake is Todd Bowles (Jets Coach) skin tone is so black he looked like he bathed himself head to toe in tar. He looks like that in real life except skin tonewise but they forgot to make him look like the singer Seal (minus the scars) in the game.
 
The other stuff also deserves an A+ from me since everything is intact this time around. In Madden 15, some coaches mainly the classic ones wore clothing such as caps that clipped through their bodies and those were so unsightly. The uniforms and the stadiums have a big case of realism to them. They are all incorporated into the game down to their last detail including some teams having decals on their uniforms like Giants have ATM in memory of the passed away former Giants first lady Ann Teresa Mara, Bears have the GSH which stands for their founder George S. Halas, etc. The user interface got itself a good upgrade and one thing that you will notice when getting ready to play the game is the way a part of each teams logo lights up when it turns a certain way. Some of the shines do not make since but there were ones that were slick by designs like any logo that contains eyes will have the shine show there. The best one of all is the Carolina Panthers one that shows the shine in both eyes. The stadiums deck their fields in team logo and the weather that comes along with it, will adjust to wear the team plays. For example: Since when does it snow in Phoenix, Arizona. You can set it to do so only if you have an open stadium but if its closed then no weather takes effect. Speaking of stadiums that open and close, the sunlight really shines the way it would in real life. When Cowboys stadium is open, it will show only a small smidget of sunshine and everything else is in shadow. The London stadium clear sky also has a unique sunshine effect where everything contains an orangish tone.
 
CONTROLS - A-
 
The controls are good but not perfect. There will be times when you will be unable to perform certain moves because the character you control is not skilled for that featured. One of the trophies requires you to make a user-pick with J.J.Watt. Good luck with that. He is a Defensive Left End (LE) but can also play as a Right or Left Outside Linebacker (ROLB or LOLB). You have to do a lot of work to make him catch an interception (which is also called a pick). First off, everybody who belongs on the defensive line have a bad case of butterfingers and do not normally cover receivers. My suggestion is to alter his stats to 99 Catch (CTH) and Catch In Traffic (CIT). Assign him to guard a receiver and get a 2nd controller to make that offensive wide receiver do a curl route and assign Underneath coverage then throw to him. JJ Watt will undercut the path and attempt to catch it if you hold the Triangle button (Y on the 360 and XB One). Hopefully, the other defensive player who does cover him does not interfere with the catch.
 
As for some other controls, some are still good but others have lost their purposes. The Super Dive (hold L2 and press Square on PS3/PS4 and X button on the Xbox 360/One) used to be real effective on the goal line around the 1 or 2 yard line in Madden 15 to dive over the entire pile and score a touchdown but it is not as flavorful in Madden 16 as the HP Sweep is more effective this time around as long as the Fullback (FB) blocks well. The spin move (Circle/B) still works a little bit but its only more effective in a one on one situation. The stiff arm (X/A) hardly works anymore. The hurdle (Triangle/Y) is still too risky to perform so reserve it for jumping over downed players who got knocked on the ground and can trip you up if you run over them. One wrong move and you will end up fumbling the ball. There are other moves you can perform on the defense but on the offense, you must have some good reflexes to survive especially when using players skilled for that.
 
SOUND/MUSIC - A+
 
Madden 16 has brought back the use of music from up and coming artists (called EA Trax) such as "I Can't Feel My Face" by The Weeknd which is where I first heard the song. Other songs I've heard on Madden 16 first were "Keep the Wolves From the Door" by Rag N' Bone Man, "Intro" by NF and "Come and Get It" by John Newman. Those are the only songs I have ever heard elsewhere outside the game. Other good tracks are "Ain't Too Cool" by LunchMoney Lewis, "Sirens" by Lee Brice, "Automatic" by Don Broco, "Higher" by Sigma ft. Labrinth and "Traveling Man" by One Thousand Horses. There are several more songs but the ones I have mentioned are my favorite ones.
 
As far as the sounds are concerned, the announcers are very spot on with what the football players do as far as evading defenders, intercepting passes, making spectacular catches, and the way they score touchdowns. If you start scoring near the end of the game and you are winning with the game out of reach for the other team, one announcer will start to slam you for running up the score while the other one comes to your defense by saying the other team should play better defense. Further running up the score will make the same guy question your sportsmanship. Hey this is Madden, there is no time for mercy. Some of the announcers' lines are some slick quips such as if you pass to Jarvis Landry, he will say "the ball lands in the hands of Landry". If your QB is Steve Young during the pre-snap and run a gun formation, he will say "Steve Young is lined up in the gun". If the player's last name is Brown. He will say first down by (first name) Brown. You get the picture here. The announcers are also good at mentioning what yard the ball is placed.
 
GAMEPLAY - A+
 
The game has several modes like Franchise and Play Now. There is also a skills trainer to earn player cards and work on your controls and plays but the big seller to this game is the MUT mode (Madden Ultimate Team). There is also the Draft Championships. Both modes require you to choose the best players to your liking. MUT has you gather up the best cards you can find and put them together for good team chemistry. Draft Championships works the same way except you do not have the privilege of choosing who you want. You go through 15 rounds choosing who of the three random players you want on your team. You may call it a more advanced version of fantasy football and you got to make due with the choices you are stuck with and win the championship. Some are destined for greatness and some are destined to fail.
 
More on the MUT, you got several choices to make in effort to earn coins to buy card packs and players in auctions. The solo challenges all vary in difficulty thus I gave it a 5 in that category. One minute you are on top of the world and another minute you will feel like the game was rigged for you to fail. This will happen a lot and you might get a little  frustrated when you can't beat a certain opponent. There are times, when you will go against a team that has a mix of players from different teams. During certain months, there will be some novelty solo challenges. On Christmas, you got to play against Santa and his little elves. Another thing you will find yourself addicted to completing sets and earning the rewards from doing so. You can also earn rewards for Madden 17 if certain conditions are met.
 
REPLAYABILITY - A+
 
If you like football, then Madden 16 is a good game for you. Aside from the Solo Challenges, you can go head to head in seasons against players from all over the world. May the best team win. Fans of UFC games from EA will recognize how the seasons work. In UFC, if you met conditions to get a belt, you don't have to play the whole season and if you lost too many matches to qualify or avoid demotion then the season ended there. With Madden 16, the formula is the same. When you meet certain conditions from winning, you will qualify for the playoffs and if you win enough, you get a first round bye for the playoffs. Rather than let you play the whole 10 game season, you can win a certain amount of games to get to the playoffs then you can keep playing until you can earn a bye but if the eligibility is over then the season just ends and goes to the playoffs. 
 
OVERALL - A+
 
While not too perfect, it is as close as perfection it can get. Addictive gameplay, careful strategizing, and wonderful reflexes on part of the player is all you need to make this a good game. Some people like to knock on Electronic Arts for their business practices with their games and rightfully so as it has been several years since EA signed an exclusivity contract with the NFL that barred other companies from making NFL games with players names. I too was displeased with that as I enjoyed the NFL2K series during its heyday but I still like the modern day Madden games no less and this game is no disappointment.